Saturday, May 18, 2019, Ed Sessa

Themeless Saturday by Ed Sessa

I am very happy to mention any day that celebrates members of the Armed Services. The third Saturday in May is now designated Armed Forces Day and I salute all who have served.

Today's constructor is Ed Sessa M.D., our retired N.Y. pediatrician who is now a resident of Sanibel Island, Florida 

This puzzle was just what the doctor ordered (Hey, you had to see that coming!). I came up dry in the NW but the NE yielded quickly and pretty soon the entire east coast was fully populated and it was Westward Ho! 

Triple horizontal and vertical stacks always impress me 

Now let's see the results of Dr. Sessa's making a house call to our little part of the world:

Across:

1. Noble: ARISTOCRAT and 4. Address for a 1-Across, perhaps: SIR.

11. Tic __: mints: TACS - In a rare moment of comity last week, President Trump offered Speaker Pelosi a TIC TAC and she accepted it


15. Play with unseen players: RADIO DRAMA - Perhaps the most famous RADIO DRAMA performance of all time. Orson Wells doing H.G. Wells 

16. Buck heroine: OLAN - O-LAN is a strong but mostly silent Chinese woman in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth 

17. Certain clinic contributor: SPERM DONOR - Uh, BLOOD DONOR was close but...

18. Hall of Fame quarterback Graham: OTTO - We NFL fans from the 50's remember

19. Significant span: ERA

20. Satirized: SENT UP - A great purveyor of the art:

21. Kind of list: TO DO.

22. Homework shirker's comeuppance: NO TV

24. It may hold broken pottery: RUIN- I'm sure Pompeii's RUINS had lots of broken pottery

25. Hilarious: A HOOT 

26. Frozen beverages: ICEES.

28. Source of blowups: TNT.

29. They're off-limits: NO NOS.

30. Olympic figure skating gold medalist after Kristi: OKSANA - OKSANA Baiul and her doubles partner Victor Petrenko having some fun

32. Makes a lot of progress: GETS FAR.

34. Many an Irish song: LILT.

36. Try for a better hand: DRAW - Even if you DRAW cards, it's going to be tough to make this a good hand

37. Smirks: SIMPERS - Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered has the lyric "I'm a whimpering, SIMPERING child again" and I always thought whimpering and simpering were synonyms

40. Stir to action: AROUSE  and 52. Barbarian horde: HUNS - A WWI call to action

44. Mystical views: AURAE - AURAS didn't cut it

45. Saddle-making tool: AWL - Many holes are required

47. Muesli brand: ALPEN - Swiss style muesli made in Northhampshire, England

48. Constellation points: STARS - These STARS makeup the constellation ORION

49. Musician Lennon: SEAN - son of John and Yoko 

51. Banjo bar: FRET.

53. It includes AAPL and MSFT: THE DOW Jones Average - YTD for Microsoft and Apple

59. Steal, perhaps: DEAL - At Apple's IPO, the stock price was $22/share. Four splits and nearly forty years later it would be worth $11,144/share. What a steal/DEAL!

55. Devoured, with "up": ATE.

56. Thrill from Sills: ARIA - Beverly Sills at La Scala

57. Start: ACTIVATION.

60. Dropped in on: PAID A VISIT.

61. Mrs. Krabappel (Kruh bap' ull) of "The Simpsons": EDNA - The Our Gang Comedies had Mrs. Crabapple as a teacher who spelled her name slightly differently 

62. Giovanni Ribisi title con man: SNEAKY PETE - Here 'ya go


Down:

1. Former late-night talk star, familiarly: ARSENIO - Hall

2. Limp Bizkit genre: RAP ROCK - If you're curious

3. Has a thought: IDEATES - Example from Merriam Webster - "A psychotic would repeatedly IDEATE the act of committing murder" Awkward perhaps, but look at all those compliant letters

5. Farm males: TOMS.

6. More kooky: ODDER.

7. Pastry portmanteau: CRONUT - When a croissant meets a doughnut

8. Sounding off: RANTING.

9. Came (to): AMOUNTED - My birthday meal "came to" $102 and was fabulous

10. One may be rolled out in the park: TARP - Roll it out (cylinder is in left field) and then spread it out

11. "Macbeth" brew ingredient before "Witches' mummy": TOOTH OF WOLF - Do want fries with that?

12. City with a Penn State campus: ALTOONA - Last week we had Penn State Schuykill 

13. Persian passageway: CAT DOOR - This is not a Persian cat but it is a CAT DOOR that only opens when the cat with the right microchip uses it

14. Pompous sorts: SNOOTS.

23. Trattoria entrÈe: VEAL MARSALA.

25. Cochise player of early TV: ANSARA - Syrian born Michael who played Native American Cochise

27. Wading birds with camouflage plumage: SNIPES 

31. Tavern offering: ALE.

33. Refrain opener: TRA.

35. Domicile in front of 123 Sesame Street: TRASH CAN - You'd be grouchy too if you lived there

37. Medically closed up: SUTURED.

38. Khamenei or Khatami: IRANIAN.

39. What often comes before pie: SWEETIE.

41. Hoist: UPRAISE.

42. Take care of business: SEE TO IT.

43. Agreement between states: ENTENTE - One is shown in green below that fought during WWI

44. Barely: A SHADE - Just A SHADE short

46. Uppity: LA DI DA.

50. B.J. of "The Office": NOVAK - He played Ryan Howard on the show and also was a writer and executive producer

53. Light touches: TAPS.

54. Rippled, like chips: WAVY.

58. Point or pointer: TIP - I'll give you a TIP on how to use the TIP of that pointer 

I hope today puts today will remind you to say, "Thank you for your service" to any member of the armed forces you see today.